Chapter 4 4

Ace wasn't aware I had the biggest crush known to humankind on him.

It developed a few years back, around the time I turned fifteen. But I was too afraid to tell him; I couldn't risk our friendship ending over a silly crush. I wouldn't survive without him.

Plus, on the few occasions I did try to bring my feelings up, Ace always seemed to find a way to change the subject or distract me.

It made mornings like this one, filled with playful touches and flirty looks, all the more frustrating. Were best friends supposed to act like this?

I shoved his shoulder, trying to push him away from me to no avail. "Stop being ridiculous." I glanced at the clock on my nightstand once again.

I didn't necessarily want him to leave-I could stay in bed with him all day, no problem-but my parents were going to get suspicious if I didn't come down for breakfast soon.

"Okay, but seriously, you need to leave. My alarm didn't go off, and it's getting late."

"No," Ace grunted, still nuzzling up against the skin of my cheek.

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean no."

I frowned, even as his strange behavior caused a delicious throbbing sensation between my legs and hot sparks to race down my spine.

Crap. I need to get it together.

"W-what's your problem this morning?" I stammered. "What if my parents come in and find you in here?"

"Don't care."

I scoffed. "You'll care when they put bars on my window to keep you from sleeping with me every night."

That got his attention.

He gripped my waist tightly, making my breath stall. "I don't care if your parents come in here and find me with you because they know that you're mine.

"And if they try to keep me away from you, I'll burn the world to the fucking ground."

I stared at him in shock. A moment of silence passed between us.

Then, as if he said nothing at all, he pressed his nose back to my cheek, continuing to rub it against me as he hummed in contentment.

Well, okay then. Time to change tactics, I guess.

"If you don't get out of my bed in the next five seconds, I will knee you in the balls so hard, your future children will come out deformed," I stated.

Ace stopped moving his nose against my skin. The temperature in the room lowered significantly.

With an unsettling slowness, Ace leaned back to look at me, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes. "I thought you knew better than to threaten me, Doe."

Usually, I did. I guess I had some sort of self-destructive urge this morning.

I swallowed my nerves. "Five," I started carefully.

His brow rose at the challenge.

"Four..."

He tugged me closer so our faces were right up against each other, our breath mixing. He was trying to intimidate me. I sucked in air, determined not to back down.

"Three," I continued slowly. "Two."

Ace watched me closely, seemingly unbothered by my countdown. In fact, he almost seemed to be enjoying himself. This only infuriated me further.

I shifted my leg back, preparing to strike.

"One."

Ace latched his mouth onto my throat.

I moaned in shock, immediately gripping his hair without thinking, my back arching, causing me to press my body closer to him.

I should have known it was going to happen. It was Ace's preferred method of turning me to mush, although he had many other techniques.

He knew I couldn't focus on anything but his lips when he kissed, licked, and sucked on my throat.

He started doing this when we were around fourteen years old. Every once in a while, he would pull me close without warning and start kissing my neck, effectively setting my body on fire.

What's worse is that he wouldn't stop until he left a hickey, sometimes several, refusing to let me go no matter what was going on around us.

My throat had been permanently covered in small bruises for three years.

The first time he did it came out of the blue, and I had felt shocked, ecstatic, and then mortified. In that order.

We'd been sitting in his living room, watching a movie, when, all of a sudden, he was on top of me. I don't think he'd ever touched me in a way that could be considered sexual before that.

The most embarrassing part, though, was that I had acted like a complete nutjob the moment his lips touched me. I'd moaned and pushed up against him, encouraging him, just like I was doing right now.

It had ended just as suddenly and confusingly, with Ace pulling away and turning back to the movie, acting as if nothing had happened.

Later, when I asked him why he had done it, he just shrugged. I could never get a real answer out of him. It was a little heartbreaking.

I couldn't stop blushing around him for a month after that, and my parents didn't look me in the eye, so obvious was the big, purple bruise he had left on my neck.

Although, I was grateful they never said anything. That was not a conversation I wanted to have. How could I explain that my best friend was giving me hickeys when I didn't understand it myself?

But with time, I didn't think it was so weird anymore. It's the way of people in Embermoon.

Ace's behavior made me pay more attention to others, and I would often see people licking each other, including friends. It was their way of showing affection.

It didn't mean Ace was interested in me in the same way I was interested in him, even if it did send my body into overdrive and steal all coherent thoughts from my head.

And so, whenever it happened, all I could do was wait for the delicious torture to end and hope I didn't embarrass myself too much in the meantime.

Ace nudged me with his head as he continued to kiss me, silently encouraging me to tilt my head to the side. I did so, giving him better access to my sensitive skin.

He was working on his favorite spot today. While all the other bruises he gave me came and went, Ace never let the space where my shoulder and neck connected go without a hickey.

It was probably because he knew what it did to me. Any time he so much as breathed on that spot, something in my brain short-circuited, and I became a puddle in his arms.